Hog-tied, gagged and beaten in violent home invasion

Peter Hardwick
Reporter
Peter started in 1976 as apprentice typesetter/comp and has 32 years with The Chronicle in three stints (in between working/holidays in UK/Europe, Brisbane and Melbourne). Entered editorial from comp room in 1996.

A HELIDON man was hog-tied, had a plastic bag placed over his head and beaten with a torch during what police claim was an early morning violent home invasion.

Police claim Gatton woman Melanie Maree Middleton, 27, was with three other people when the group allegedly entered the 53-year-old man's Helidon home in the early hours of last Saturday.

It was alleged by police that the complainant man was struck a number of times in the head with a torch before his wrists were tied with masking tape.

Police claim he was then hog-tied around the legs with electrical cable ripped from a heater and a plastic bag placed over his head which was secured with tape.

When he struggled to breathe, the plastic bag was removed and a pillow case put over his head instead, police claimed.

The man's mobile phone and car keys were then stolen from the home and his car, which was parked outside, driven away.

Police claim the man was threatened by the group as they left that he would be killed if he called police.

Middleton appeared in custody before Toowoomba Magistrates Court yesterday on charges of armed robbery in company, deprivation of liberty, assault occasioning bodily harm, stealing and entering a dwelling with intent at night and in company.

She was not required to enter any pleas to the charges and through her solicitor Claire Graham denied all allegations.

Ms Graham said her client admitted going to the complainant man's home earlier that evening but not the second time when police claim the alleged home invasion occurred.

She said her client lived in Gatton but would return to Grantham to live with family during the remand period if granted bail and abide by all bail conditions.

However, Magistrate Damian Carroll refused bail and remanded Middleton in custody to appear by video link from the Brisbane Women's Prison for a hand-up committal in the same court on August 21.

Gatton CIB detectives said yesterday the incident was still under investigation but as yet no-one else had been charged.